Harvard H-10

The H-10 "The Boogie" was a stereo cassette player manufactured in Japan by the Harvard Corporation as part of their locomotion range. It was similar looking to the Harvard H-3 (LMR-1), and designed in the style of the Sony TPS-L2, consequently gaining the reputation of being clones. The Harvard H-10 is a 4-track, 2-channel stereo system with audio output of 30 mW per channel. It operates on four AA size dry cells, and the unit measures just 93 mm × 136 mm × 31 mm, with a mass of 360 g.

Review

The advent of the Sony TPS-L2 led to great leaps in semiconductor technology, which reduced the component count thereby allowing other manufacturers to make clones at much lower cost. Even then, the H-10 has four integrated circuits consisting of TA7230P, two NEC C1158K2, and LAG530 motor speed controller.

The TA7230P is a stereo power amplifier IC manufactured by the Toshiba Corporation. With 14 V power supply and 8 Ω loads it is capable of delivering up to 2.4-watts per channel. This IC can also operate on supply voltages as little as 5.5 V, thereby making it ideal for battery powered portable applications. The sound quality was excellent providing you ditched the supplied headphones and used a high-end Sony pair. Most users usually realised at some point that the secret of stereo players sounding good was in the headphone driver technology, and that not all headphones were of the same high quality.

It has wonderful build quality and is very heavy when installed with batteries.

One nice feature of these early units is the way the cassette compartment door opens up all the way, which makes maintenance cleaning very easy. The large clear window also gives the user a good view of the cassette.

Price/eBay

These early clones occasionally come up for sale on eBay and are still sought after by collectors and enthusiasts. Those made in Japan were almost identical to the TPS-L2 and sounded just as good, and therefore today they hold their price. A unit in mint condition and good working order can fetch anywhere from fifty pounds to over one hundred pounds. Survivor units are getting rare and I do not see them frequently so if any turns up, then it is a good idea to bid for it.

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